Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) Short Interest Up 31.1% in July

Silicon Motion Technology Co. (NASDAQ:SIMO) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 880,200 shares, a growth of 31.1% from the June 30th total of 671,400 shares. Currently, 2.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 355,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on SIMO shares. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $85.00 to $94.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Silicon Motion Technology from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $88.00 in a research report on Monday, May 6th. B. Riley upped their price objective on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $109.00 to $112.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 8th. Craig Hallum increased their price target on shares of Silicon Motion Technology from $80.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 6th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Silicon Motion Technology from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, Silicon Motion Technology currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $93.13.

Silicon Motion Technology Stock Performance

Silicon Motion Technology stock traded up $1.40 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $70.08. 625,503 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 310,213. The business’s 50-day moving average is $79.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $74.45. Silicon Motion Technology has a 12 month low of $49.50 and a 12 month high of $85.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.82, a P/E/G ratio of 0.65 and a beta of 0.86.

Silicon Motion Technology (NASDAQ:SIMO) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The semiconductor producer reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $189.31 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $180.23 million. Silicon Motion Technology had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 7.78%. On average, equities analysts predict that Silicon Motion Technology will post 2.84 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Silicon Motion Technology Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 8th will be issued a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 8th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. Silicon Motion Technology’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 113.07%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Silicon Motion Technology

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 154.9% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 548 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 3,971.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 570 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 556 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Silicon Motion Technology by 34.5% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,332 shares of the semiconductor producer’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 342 shares during the period. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the 1st quarter worth about $150,000. Finally, Barometer Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Silicon Motion Technology during the 4th quarter worth about $123,000. 78.02% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Silicon Motion Technology Company Profile

Silicon Motion Technology Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, designs, develops, and markets NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices. The company offers controllers for computing-grade solid state drives (SSDs), which are used in PCs and other client devices; enterprise-grade SSDs used in data centers; eMMC and UFS mobile embedded storage for use in smartphones and IoT devices; flash memory cards and flash drives for use in expandable storage; and specialized SSDs that are used in industrial, commercial, and automotive applications.